Back from LA, and it’s all still here. Saw a few films out there including the much vaunted Super 8 and the much vaunted, in certain circles, Tree of Life. Both seemed to promise more than they deliver, which is not to say they’re bad films by any means. Maybe it’s my age, I sometimes miss the wide-eyed wonder with which I watched films as kid.

The two films I enjoyed the most were Senna, which I hadn’t had a chance to see in the UK and Woody Allen’s latest, Midnight in Paris. The Woody Allen is kind of silly, a sort of intellectual Goodnight Sweetheart and isn’t for everybody but it had enough echos of vintage Woody to be hugely satisfying. It reminded me of being fourteen and thinking how sophisticated I must be for preferring Annie Hall over Star Wars.

I saw Midnight in Paris as well as the rather overdone French-Canadian picture Incendies at the Laemmle cinema in Santa Monica, there are several in Los Angeles and they specialise in art house films that don’t play the mainstream theatres. In truth they’re rather run down and in desperate need of some tender loving care, but as I sat watching trailers for a bunch of interesting looking future attractions I admit to feeling a kind of stabbing envy.

I’d much rather be playing these interesting films than suffering through another week of woeful business on Green Lantern.

Now this is a potentially dangerous line of thought, a lot of people like these films and It’s not for me to look down my nose at people who do.

Cinema was built on mass wide appeal pictures, but the audience I have for this type of stuff is limited or at least exhausts itself very quickly, completely at odds with the national picture.

We seem to be caught in some sort of cinema going parallel universe.  If every film were constructed around monarchy, set during the war or featured ladies of a certain age murdering Abba songs I’d be typing this from my hot tub in the Hollywood hills.  Sadly, or thankfully probably, this isn’t the case.

It appears our audience has narrowed to the point where ordinary films just don’t drum up enough business. Sure we’ll do huge numbers with Harry Potter and Cars 2 but our weekend take on Bridesmaids for instance was only OK. I’m sure multiplex managers are struggling to cope with the onslaught. For these mainstream films we effectively have the families, or the kids that can’t escape to the bigger towns because they can’t drive. Never fully understood that, we’re cheaper than the circuit opposition, our picture is always in focus and our sound is definitely set at the correct level. The older audience are simply not interested at all.

On the flip side The King’s Speech did business way, way above what would be expected in a town this small, so it’s not as if people aren’t out there and it’s not as if they won’t come if there’s a film they want to see. It’s just the films they want to see fall into a very narrow category. Or maybe I’m playing the wrong films.

Sadly it’s not that simple, basically Bridesmaids was pretty much my only option this week. I could have played Potiche last week, and in fact had it dated but the distributor in their wisdom decided to take it out to protect some of their other bookings.  Being digital there was no excuse for this, but I didn’t put up a huge fight as I couldn’t be sure it was worth it. You have to choose your battles carefully at times.

We’ve sold huge numbers of tickets for the upcoming Met Opera season, which doesn’t start until October. The Cherry Orchard, live from The National has sold out two screens on Thursday. This is all fantastic but too infrequent to bet the farm on. The entire Met season last year grossed what one very big film would, but took eleven months to do it.

So I suppose I’m asking a pretty huge question. Should I eschew the Hollywood mainstream and try going down the art house route? The answer I suspect lies somewhere in between, but  first week mainstream fayre is not something that’s easy to give up.  And let’s face it Mamma Mia and King’s Speech were pretty much as mainstream as it gets.

Another, perhaps more salient question, is my reach exceeding my grasp?

When all is said and done Uckfield is a town of 15,000 people, we punch way above our weight and having all these highfaluting ideas may not be appropriate for what is in effect a small town provincial cinema.  I’ve just spent a fortune on new digital projectors making us capable of screening films to a standard often much higher than the opposition, maybe I overdid it?

However, if I kept at it I might be able to build something quite special. I certainly don’t want to make it sound like things are really bad, they aren’t, but I suspect I could do better.

Maybe this post is too candid but I’m confused and I’d like to hear some opinions, and the idea of this blog is to give an insight into the dark corners of my cinema owner mind. Scary isn’t it?

K

If you’re interested in how it turned out, not too bad. No movement on KFP evening shows, but WB were pretty laid back about Hangover. Fingers crossed Senna brings them in and we get a nice light grey drizzle for the next few weeks, this weather is killing us.

Manic day all round with our Laughter Lounge comedy evening doing very well. Fantastic evening with top comics Phil Kay and Wil Hodgson particularly good. I even did five minutes myself.

Next post will be from Hollywood! Of to LA tomorrow..

The official release date of Kung Fu Panda 2 in the UK is June 10th. However we’ve been playing it since last Wednesday because Paramount decided to add five days of “previews”. These extra performances are not usually subject to the same playing time rules that apply when the film opens officially. In essence, and within reason, we can play the film anytime of day and for as many or as few performances as we see fit.

However, when the film officially opens on June 10th it has to play all day, all shows. This means no other film is allowed to play in that screen, the upshot of which will be a film like Kung Fu Panda plays to empty houses at 8.00pm at night when I could be playing something else that might get an audience.  And there is nothing I can do about it, other than not play the film at all.

Surely, it’s my cinema,  I can play the films when I like? Nope. Not first run films anyway, and I need first run films, so I toe the line.

It’s important to remember the studio has spent many millions of dollars making and promoting this film and they’re entitled to have the best shot at getting their money back. But it can be so frustrating when they know and I know that no bugger is going to come and see this film after 6 O’clock in the evening, and to be fair the 8pm show on cartoons is the first to go, quite often in the second week.

It’s slightly more frustrating with KFP as we’ve already taken a lot out of it and June 10th feels like a second week booking not a first.

People who know about these things, whoever they are, were sure that digital projection would open up a new golden age of cinema with more varied content and flexible playing times. Admittedly it’s still early days and truthfully since going all digital we have found room for more non mainstream product than ever before, but the bulk of the playing time still has to be given over to mainstream movies from mainstream studios, because however nice it is to play minority films the large audience numbers come from studio films. And all the time that is true we have to dance to their tune.